IELTS Task Response: The Criterion That Decides Whether You Answered the Question

Task Response is one of the four criteria on IELTS writing. It is worth a quarter of your writing band, and it is the only one of the four that can be lost completely by an answer whose English is good.

Most pages on this criterion say that it means answering the question, and stop there. That is true and it is not usable. This post goes through the published wording band by band, shows three answers to the same question landing on three different bullets, and separates Task 2 Task Response from Task 1 Task Achievement, which is a different list.

What the criterion is called, and on which task

The criterion has two names because the two tasks ask for different things.

• On Task 2, the essay, it is called Task Response. It marks your position, how fully you cover every part of the question, and whether your main ideas are developed and supported.
• On Task 1, the chart or the letter, it is called Task Achievement. It marks whether you covered the requirements of the task, whether there is an overview, and whether the details you selected are relevant and accurate.

Two terms that the descriptors use and most advice does not define.

• A part of the task is each separate instruction in the question. "Discuss both views and give your own opinion" has three. Missing one is the single most common way this criterion is lost.
• A position is what you think, stated plainly, held for the whole answer. It is not the topic and it is not a summary of both sides.

The other three criteria are Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. There is a plain English walk through all four criteria and what each one is really asking, and what IELTS Task 2 asks you to do covers the essay this criterion is applied to.

The published wording, band by band

These are the public band descriptors for Task Response on Task 2. Read them downwards and watch which word changes.

Three things fall out of that table, and they are worth more than any list of tips.

1. Coverage is a gate, not a slider. Band 6 and band 7 both say the answer addresses all parts of the task. Band 5 says it addresses the task only partially. So an answer that misses one of three instructions cannot reach band 6 on this criterion, however well it is written.
2. The position is the second gate. Band 7 asks for a clear position throughout the response. Band 6 allows a relevant position whose conclusions become unclear or repetitive. Band 5 allows a position whose development is not always clear.
3. Development is the slider. Once coverage and position are in place, the words that change are supported, extended, fully extended. That is the 7 to 8 to 9 ladder, and it is about how far each idea is taken, not how many ideas there are.

The four ways this criterion is actually lost

One part of the question unanswered. Two part questions and "discuss both views and give your own opinion" are where this happens. Answering both halves properly is a mechanical check you can run in thirty seconds before you plan.

No position, or a position that moves. An answer that explains the arguments on both sides and never says what the writer thinks has no position. An answer that leans one way in the first body paragraph and the other way in the second has a position that moves, which the band 6 bullet describes as conclusions becoming unclear.

Relevant knowledge, irrelevant to the question. This is the trap for candidates who know the topic. A correct explanation of how something works is irrelevant detail if the question asked whether it is a good thing. What the descriptors say about going off topic sets out the four levels of drift in the words of the descriptors.

Ideas listed, not developed. Three main ideas with one sentence each sit lower than two ideas taken three sentences deep. The descriptor wants ideas extended and supported, and a list is neither.

One question, three answers

The question: Some people think that governments should pay for university tuition. Others believe students should pay for it themselves. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Three parts: view one, view two, your opinion.

Answer A. Two body paragraphs. The first gives the arguments for state funding, the second gives the arguments for student funding. The conclusion says both views have merit and the right answer depends on circumstances.

This has covered two of the three parts. There is no opinion, so the task is addressed only partially, and that is the band 5 bullet. The English could be excellent and this criterion would still sit at 5.

Answer B. Three paragraphs. The first gives the state funding arguments, the second gives the student funding arguments, the third says the writer agrees with state funding because education benefits everyone.

All three parts are covered and a position is stated, so the band 6 gate is passed. But the opinion appears only at the end, so the position is not clear throughout the response, and the one reason given is not extended. This lands on the band 6 bullets: all parts addressed, some more fully covered than others, main ideas relevant but inadequately developed.

Answer C. The introduction states the position in one sentence. The first body paragraph gives the strongest argument for state funding and then takes it two steps further, naming who gains and in what way. The second body paragraph states the opposing argument fairly and then explains why the writer still does not accept it. The conclusion restates the position.

All parts covered, a clear position held from the first paragraph to the last, main ideas extended and supported. That is the band 7 description, and it moves towards 8 as the support becomes more specific. The structural difference between B and C is one sentence in the right place, which is why the thesis statement matters more than its length suggests.

A paragraph rewritten, change by change

Here is a body paragraph from the same question, as candidates commonly write it.

Education is very important for a country. Many people cannot afford university fees nowadays. The government has a lot of money from taxes. Therefore the government should pay for university.

Four sentences, four separate assertions, nothing extended. Now the same content, rewritten.

Free tuition matters most to the students it decides. A school leaver from a low income family who is accepted onto a nursing course will either enrol or take paid work, and the fee is what settles which. When the state covers that fee, the country gains a nurse and loses a few thousand pounds of tax revenue, which is a trade most health services would take.

What changed, and which descriptor bullet each change addresses.

Note what did not change: no rarer vocabulary and no longer sentences. This is a Task Response rewrite, and it would move that criterion without touching the other three.

Task 1 is a different list

On Task 1 the same quarter of the band is called Task Achievement, and the published bullets ask for different things.

The band 5 bullet names the specific failure: detail recounted mechanically with no clear overview. That is why the overview sentence is the highest value sentence in a Task 1 answer. On a General Training letter the same criterion counts the three bullet points in the prompt, and an unanswered bullet is an uncovered requirement.

What 25 published answers show about this criterion

The Bandly sample library publishes full answers with a separate band estimate for each of the four criteria. We read the four criterion estimates on all 25 published answers and counted them.

• The Task Response estimate was the highest of the four criteria in all 25 answers.
• It came back 9 in seven answers, 8 in sixteen, and 7 in two. It never came back below 7.
• Over the same 25 answers the Coherence and Cohesion estimate never came back above 7.

Two honest readings of that, and you need both.

The first is about the criterion. Task Response is built on gates, so a competent, complete, on topic answer passes them and sits high, while the three language criteria move in small steps and sit in the middle of the scale. A spread like this is what a criterion made of yes and no questions looks like.

The second is about the estimator. Bandly's scoring has never been checked against a qualified human examiner, so these are machine estimates and nothing more. A criterion that returns only 7, 8 and 9 across 25 answers is also a criterion the estimator is not separating finely, and we would rather say that than print the number alone. Read it as a demonstration of how the criterion is shaped, not as a measurement of the real distribution.

The two minute check before you hand it in

Run these in order on your own answer. The first two are the gates, and they are worth more than the rest put together.

1. Count the instructions in the question. Underline each one. Point at the sentence in your answer that does each one. A missing pointer is a missing part.
2. Find your position in the introduction. If your opinion appears for the first time in the conclusion, move a one sentence version of it into the introduction.
3. Read only your first sentences. Take the first sentence of each body paragraph and read them in sequence. They should state different ideas, and both should answer the question rather than describe the topic.
4. Check each main idea for a second step. For every main idea, find the sentence that takes it further. If there is none, the idea is listed rather than developed.
5. Delete one fact. Find the most impressive piece of topic knowledge in your answer and ask what the question asked. If it does not serve that, it is irrelevant detail and it is costing you.

What to do today

Take the last Task 2 answer you wrote. Do not rewrite it. Do steps 1 and 2 above, and write down what you find: how many parts the question had, how many your answer covered, and which sentence states your position. Most candidates who are stuck below band 6.5 on this criterion find a missing part or a missing position, and both are repairable in a sentence.

Then write one new answer and run all five steps before you look at anything else. If you want a second opinion on where this criterion sits in your writing, Bandly estimates Task Response separately from the other three and shows the sentences behind each estimate, so you can see which of the five checks above is the one you keep failing.